Interface is a by-the-numbers TNG episode.  There is the usual technobabble “hook.”  There is the human element.  And there is a mystery element.  But the numbers just don’t add up to anything special.  In fact, the result is about as average as you can get.

The techno-angle of the episode is, initially, quite interesting.  There’s this gadget that  allows LaForge to view the telemetry of a probe in a virtual reality kind of way.  Thus, not only is he able to remotely view and interact within remote and dangerous locales, but we also get to see LaForge walking around without his VISOR.

Actor LeVar Burton once said (in one of the DVD commentaries) that he believed one of his strengths as an actor was his ability to use his eyes to convey emotions.   It was a strange irony then, he noted, that his character’s eyes were never seen in the show.  Interface is, at the very least a vehicle for him to showcase that talent.  And in that sense, the episode is a success.

Unfortunately, the “cool” factor of the interface wears off relatively quickly.  And yet, the episode relies on it.  Heavily.  The Enterprise is busy searching the wreckage of a Federation starship that has been caught in the atmosphere of a gas giant.  And LaForge  uses this new gadget to explore the derelict, and to determine the fate of the crew (they’re all dead, btw).

What sets up the episode’s mystery, however, is an unlikely discovery that LaForge makes while “on board” the derelict: he sees his mother.  The problem is that her own ship was recently reported missing — over 300 light years away.  Because LaForge is not yet ready to accept the possibility that his mother might be lost, this ties into the “human” element.

A great complication for LaForge, however, is that the interface is proving to be exceptionally dangerous to his nervous system.  As a result, Picard and Dr. Cursher forbid him from using it — from trying re-establish contact with his mother.  LaForge is incensed, but seems to accept his orders.

What follows is, perhaps, the best scene of the episode.  Commander Riker joins LaForge in Engineering to offer his support.  To do so, Riker launches into a very personal recollection of his childhood, specifically as it pertains to the death of his own mother.  It’s a revealing, touching moment.  Sadly though, LaForge simply brushes it aside.  So a scene that had the potential to be profound becomes, well, average.

In the end, LaForge disobeys orders and attempts to utilize the interface all on his own.  Data arrives and, surprisingly (or perhaps not) helps his friend.  With the connection becoming more and more dangerous we learn that LaForge  is, in fact, not seeing his mother (surprise).  Instead, she’s a projection of some alien entity that was trapped on the derelict.  With LaForge’s help, the entity is returned to its proper place and so ends the episode.

Interface is actually not a horrible episode.  There really aren’t too many overt mistakes.  The problem is that it never seems to elevate itself beyond the sensation of simply going through the motions.

Filed under: TNG Reviews